Conductor
Piano

Vladimir Ashkenazy

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor: Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Music Director: European Union Youth Orchestra
Conductor Laureate: Philharmonia Orchestra
Conductor Laureate: NHK Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Laureate: Iceland Symphony Orchestra

In the years since Vladimir Ashkenazy first came to prominence on the world stage in the 1955 Chopin Competition in Warsaw he has built an extraordinary career, not only as one of the most renowned and revered pianists of our times, but as an artist whose creative life encompasses a vast range of activities and continues to offer inspiration to music-lovers across the world.

Formerly Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic (1998 to 2003), he became Music Director of NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo in 2004. In January 2009 he took up the new position of Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. A regular visitor to Sydney over many years, he already shares a warm relationship with the Orchestra, and they look forward to collaborating on a number of exciting projects including composer festivals, major recording projects and international touring activities.

Ashkenazy continues his longstanding relationship with the Philharmonia Orchestra of which he was appointed Conductor Laureate in 2000. He also holds the positions of Music Director of the European Union Youth Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and maintains strong links with major orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra (he is former Principal Guest Conductor), San Francisco Symphony and Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin (Chief Conductor and Music Director 1988-96). He returned to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic in October 2007.

Ashkenazy continues to devote himself to the piano, these days mostly in the recording studio where he continues to build his extraordinarily comprehensive recording catalogue with releases such as the 1999 Grammy award-winning Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, Bach's Wohltemperierte Klavier and released in June 2007, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.

Click for larger photo